The deal could exceed €1 billion, according to several parties involved in the discussions.
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron’s office is courting Saudi cash to turn what was once the country’s biggest theme park into a manga-themed attraction.
According to half a dozen diplomatic, government and industry officials — all of whom were granted anonymity to speak candidly about a project one person characterized as “highly confidential” — the Elysée Palace has for several months held discussions with potential Saudi Arabian investors about the revival of Mirapolis, which closed in 1991 due to financial issues and has remained abandoned since.
A subsidiary of the Saudi Public Investment Fund called the Qiddiya Investment Company is at the center of the negotiations. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund recently opened an office in Paris.
According to one diplomat with contacts in the Gulf, the project would involve Saudi investors acquiring the former Mirapolis site, located some 30 kilometers northwest of Paris, with an eye to turning it into a theme park based on the popular manga series Dragon Ball.
Manga’s explosion in popularity has been felt keenly in France, where comic books and graphic novels are particularly popular.
The expected investment amount is not yet known, but several parties involved in the discussions suggest the deal could exceed €1 billion.
Saudi spinoff
The enterprise is part of Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 plan, which aims to diversify the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy with massive investments in tourism and leisure.
The Qiddiya Investment Company is overseeing the construction of the city of Qiddiya — a huge entertainment complex situated some 50 kilometers from Riyadh. The site is set to feature a Formula 1 circuit, a large tennis complex designed to host international tournaments, an amusement park operated by the American chain Six Flags and another theme park based on Dragon Ball.
According to three people familiar with the negotiations, the current plan is to build a smaller-scale Dragon Ball park where Mirapolis once stood.
The Elysée did not respond to questions about the project’s details, and Qiddiya Investment Company did not respond to a request for comment.
Qiddiya Managing Director Abdullah Aldawood met with Macron at the last two Choose France summits, which are events organized to attract foreign investment in the country. At the event, the summit’s press kit referred to, in cryptic terms, the signing of a memorandum of understanding aimed at “exploring a major tourism and entertainment project in France.”
A few weeks before Choose France this year, Aldawood met with Valérie Pécresse, president of the Île-de-France region, where the abandoned Mirapolis site is located. Aldawood also met with teams from Business France and Choose Paris Region — the region’s economic development agency — said a person who attended the meeting.
In a sign that the project is progressing well, late last month officials representing Île-de-France, which includes Paris, met with representatives from 10 key ministries, electricity grid operator RTE and public transport operator Île-de-France Mobilités to discuss the park’s possible revival.
The agenda for this meeting, which POLITICO saw, included discussions about the governance of the future project, transportation infrastructure, energy requirements and land acquisition issues. The gathering was chaired by Macron’s former Chief of Staff Georges-François Leclerc, who is now the prefect of the Île-de-France region.
“We had no information before receiving the invitation to the meeting, but we understand that the Elysée wants to step up the pressure on this issue,” said a ministerial adviser who took part in the discussions.
A fallen icon of the 1980s
Opened in 1987 by then-Prime Minister Jacques Chirac and with funding from Saudi billionaire Ghaith Pharaon, Mirapolis was intended to be France’s attempt at subverting U.S. dominance in the theme park industry.
But financial difficulties quickly mounted. Visitor numbers came in below expectations, and competition from EuroDisney further undermined the park’s business model a few years later. Mirapolis closed its doors for good four years later.
Discussions about Mirapolis’ manga successor have remained very limited. No one at the town hall in Courdimanche, the commune where Mirapolis is located, responded to requests for comment.
Rachid Temal, the Socialist Party senator who represents Mirapolis’ constituency, said he was not involved in the discussions and preferred not to comment at this stage.
Aurélien Taché, a member of Parliament from the far-left France Unbowed party who represents the area, said he was not kept in the loop either, and that he will be paying particular attention to “the environmental and social aspects of the project.”